Too anxious to control: the relation between math anxiety and inhibitory control processes

Inspired by Attentional Control Theory and the Dual Mechanisms of Control framework, this study examined whether math anxiety relates differentially to reactive and proactive aspects of inhibitory control. Using an arrow flanker task that manipulated the proportion of incongruent trials to induce reactive (mostly congruent context) versus proactive (mostly incongruent context) control, the authors found that higher math anxiety was associated with slower responses on interference (incongruent) trials, but only in the reactive control context. In the proactive context, response times were not influenced by math anxiety. The findings suggest that math anxiety impairs reactive control, potentially due to heightened distractibility triggered by both the reactive task context and the anxious state.

E. Van den Bussche, K. Vanmeert, B. Aben, D. Sasanguie